{"id":7517,"date":"2021-10-29T11:00:54","date_gmt":"2021-10-29T11:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/?p=7517"},"modified":"2021-10-28T20:41:50","modified_gmt":"2021-10-28T20:41:50","slug":"curious-dutch-words-why-is-a-boterham-called-a-boterham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/curious-dutch-words-why-is-a-boterham-called-a-boterham\/","title":{"rendered":"Curious Dutch Words: Why is a boterham called a boterham?"},"content":{"rendered":"

You wake up in the morning, take a shower, and then it’s time for breakfast<\/a>. As a good Dutch person, you’ll have\u00a0een kopje koffie\u00a0<\/em>(a cup of coffee) and, of course, een boterham\u00a0<\/em>(a slice of bread). But here’s the weird thing:\u00a0de boterham\u00a0<\/em>means “the butter ham”. Yeah, really. But why?<\/p>\n

Previous posts in this series:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Curious Words In Dutch<\/a><\/p>\n

Boter<\/strong><\/em><\/h1>\n
\"Curious<\/a>

Photo by Polina Tankilevitch from Pexels<\/p><\/div>\n

The word\u00a0boter\u00a0<\/em>(butter) in\u00a0boterham\u00a0<\/em>comes from, well, that –\u00a0boter<\/em>. It’s common in the Netherlands to spread boter<\/em> on a\u00a0boterham<\/em> before adding other\u00a0beleg <\/em>(topping), such as\u00a0hagelslag<\/em> (chocolate sprinkles) and pindakaas <\/em>(peanut butter).<\/p>\n

In the context of a slice of bread,\u00a0boter\u00a0<\/em>simply signifies that it is a thing that you spread butter on.<\/p>\n

The word\u00a0boter<\/em> itself comes from the Latin\u00a0butyrum<\/em>, which in turn has its origins in Greek\u00a0bouturon<\/em>, which means as much as “cow cheese”. The English butter comes from this, too.<\/p>\n

But what about that second confusing part –\u00a0ham<\/em>?!<\/p>\n

Ham<\/strong><\/em><\/h1>\n
\"Curious<\/a>

Pindakaas<\/em> (“peanut cheese”, peanut butter), a popular broodbeleg<\/em> (bread topping) in the Netherlands (Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a>)<\/p><\/div>\n

What about the\u00a0ham<\/em>?\u00a0Ham\u00a0<\/em>in Dutch means, like in English, “ham”, you know, the animal parts. But where\u00a0ham\u00a0<\/em>comes from in the context of\u00a0boterham<\/em> is… actually unknown! There are different theories as to what ham\u00a0<\/em>can mean, and why it is used in this context.\u00a0Onze Taal <\/em>put it together<\/a> quite nicely.\u00a0The Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal\u00a0<\/em>(WNT) says that there could be a potential link between the\u00a0ham\u00a0<\/em>in\u00a0boterham\u00a0<\/em>and the meaning of\u00a0ham\u00a0<\/em>as a\u00a0brok, homp <\/em>(chunk). That would make sense, it’s a\u00a0brok\u00a0<\/em>of bread that has\u00a0boter\u00a0<\/em>spread on it.<\/p>\n

According to the etymological dictionaries of De Vries en De Tollenaere,\u00a0ham\u00a0<\/em>likely has its origin in the meaning of\u00a0hoek aangeslibd land\u00a0<\/em>(corner of silted land). From there, you can then infer\u00a0that same meaning of\u00a0brok<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Etymologisch woordenboek van het Nederlands\u00a0<\/em>(EWN) says that it could also refer to\u00a0ham(me)\u00a0<\/em>or am(me)<\/em>, which in 1599 had some usage to mean afgesneden stuk eten\u00a0<\/em>(sliced off piece of food).<\/p>\n

All of this isn’t really satisfying, but it’s a great example of how everyday words sometimes just have strange, unexplained origins and a curious relationship to other words in our language.<\/p>\n

I believe from the above, the most plausible then, is that\u00a0boterham\u00a0<\/em>literally means a “piece of butter” and not “butter ham”. But in the end, it’s just one of those odd words that we have to accept the way it is: a\u00a0boterham\u00a0<\/em>is just a slice of bread.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

You wake up in the morning, take a shower, and then it’s time for breakfast. As a good Dutch person, you’ll have\u00a0een kopje koffie\u00a0(a cup of coffee) and, of course, een boterham\u00a0(a slice of bread). But here’s the weird thing:\u00a0de boterham\u00a0means “the butter ham”. Yeah, really. But why? Previous posts in this series: Curious Words…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":7521,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[60713,3590,27711,358734],"tags":[7345,165051,503854,3608,65,70],"class_list":["post-7517","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture-2","category-dutch-language","category-dutch-vocabulary-2","category-food","tag-breakfast","tag-curiosity","tag-curious-words","tag-dutch","tag-etymology","tag-food"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t